LEARNING THROUGH COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION

BY: KIRAN SHIRAZI

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Learning Through Computer Mediated Communication .

Abstract

In these times of technology, the social media is advancing

rapidly. The purpose of this piece of research is to look into

the possibilities, for the utility of the computer mediated

communication tools, the social media and various applications

for linguistic learning and and the urge to accept the

innovations in language.

Key Words: Digital accent, Social media, Computer Mediated

Communication, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Social

Networking Sites, Digital natives, Digital immigrants.

Introduction:

This article will discuss what the social media is and its

contribution in evolution and enrichment in learning English.

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Social media has reached all the corners of the world, and its

advancement since 1990’s is giving birth to the digital

generation, which is known as, “iGeneration” and “Net

Generation”(Mills, 2011) . Here we pay attention to the CMC,

CALL, Social media applications like Facebook and Twitter and

their possible contribution in the enrichment of the learning in

general, English in particular.

1. The Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants:

Technology has brought a lots of advancement in society, in

fact among all the technologies, the internet has been the

fastest in its development. Its use by the help of

computers and other computer gadgets has transformed the

generation into a technologically advance one, who speak

and think differently as compared to their elders . Prensky

(2000) coined the two terms as ‘Digital Natives’ and

‘Digital Immigrants’, because today’s learners speak the

digital language with a native accent, hence their language

is named as digital accent . Meanwhile the adult ones in

order to bridge the generation gap are trying to assimilate3

themselves into the digital world. They might be seen

sending an email and then confirming it on the phone call

or using the message service but unwilling to adopt slang

language of internet, considering it being unfair to

English. He claims that:

Today’s average college grads have spent less than

5,000

hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000

hours playing

video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching

TV).

Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones

and instant messaging are integral parts of their

lives.

2. The Computer Mediated Communication

When we take a look at the media being introduced in the classes

or in our lives on the whole, we technically call the social

media as the Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). The internet

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and the computer have made the society and the classroom two

tools one for the transferring the information processing and the

other display of the information processing and communication (Li

& Dan, 2006) . It is the process of interaction between humans

via the computers or the digital tools (Norris 2012). Alexender

et.al. as quoted by Norris (2012) say, CMC is the interaction

“occurring via a computer terminal and a communication network

such as the Internet” .It effectively coordinates a variety of

communication situations. Li & Dun (2006) quote Warschauer and

Healey who opine the same as: “It is the rise of computer-

mediated communication and the Internet, more than anything else,

which has reshaped the uses of computers for language learning at

the end of the 20th century”. “In addition to the ability to

communicate on an international level, CMC has the ability to

gather information and connect on an intercontinental level, a

concept more specifically referred to as ‘globalization’ ”

(Norris, 2012). Hence, the CMC is one of the features of

globalization, it nonetheless boosts the spread and evolution of

linguistic developments of English, which maintains hegemony on

the internet.

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Globalization as referred to , in the above paragraph means, the

process with which one can reach anywhere in the world at any

time. World is reduced to the touch system . McLuhan as quoted

by Li & Dann (2006 ), in 1962 coined the term ‘Global village’,

as he correctly thought that the electronic communication has the

potential to bring the world closer . McLuhan says, “The medium

is the message”. The CMC has given a path to the introduction to

the message of the technological pedagogy , by the means of

Computer Assisted Language Learning.

.

3.Computer Assisted Language Learning:

Computer Assisted Language, usually recognized as CALL, is

another technological phenomenon . The CALL is the offshoot of

the PLATO system, launched at the University of Illinois being

introduced on the main frame computers in years 1950’s and 60’s

with an intention to provide students with the material and

practice to their level of understanding of Foreign language, it

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would generate the feedback and remediation if required .

(Hubbard)

Roughly it has been 25 years, since the introduction of the CALL

. It is a pedagogical concept to teach English to learners as a

second language. The lessons are designed through computer

applications using various softwares. One has to be equipped

with the peripheral audio-visual devices along with the online

networks. The focus is to improve linguistic features which

include phonetics, syntax, semantics, lexicography, phonology and

writing skills for English for academic purpose (EAP) e.tc.

websites like www.lingro.com, www.penzu.com, www.ello.com,

www.posterous.com , www.youtube.com and a wide range of websites

are working effectively. One may not deny the role of a teacher

as an instructor in the process of learning but in CALL ,there is

less dependence on him. Hubbard points out that it’s not only

improvement in learning but also the traditional classroom is

transforming into digital class. Since the CALL is a CMC activity

, there are some advantages worth mentioning here. It has open-

ended pedagogy. Chapelle et.al., (1986) and Gelenter (2009),

mention that the CALL can benefit an individual as well as a

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group equally . Likewise, it isn’t confined to classroom

wall ,any one at any time can take online course and be the

beneficiary of this module.

Unlike other CMC applications, while taking courses of the

language, one may observe that the CALL’s approach towards

language is purely formal. Little or no space may be given to

slangs, which will be discussed in latter part of this work . It

is the teaching of English Language ,therefore it has to keep the

language in its original form because the CMC tests like

International Testing Systems, are considered to be the

parameters of the language proficiency do not endorse the non-

academic approach towards the language.

4. The Social Media:

The Social media and the social networking have brought the

people near and easy to connect and exchange the information

globally within seconds. It is just the internet connectivity

required and the information across the world is at one’s hands

quickly and economically. “Social media has exploded as a

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category of online discourse where people create content, share,

bookmark and network at a prodigious rate (Asur et.al., 2010).

It is a vast field, and there is a wide range of the technology

applications being introduced daily. Some details of the

Facebook and Twitter as applications of the social media are

given below. The prime feature involved in the social media is

the interactivity, people of all age groups and all professions

interact. They share, exchange, upload, download, blog, chat

e.t.c. and hence can use the platform for trade, propagate, teach

and learn. It is an institute in itself, playing its part in

shaping our lives . However, its impacts can be good or

otherwise, worth liking or not, that’s an independent topic of

debate .(Baden,2014).

4.1 Facebook:

 Facebook is relatively a new application when compared to the

CALL. It is a web.2 0 technology which aims to create two way

communication with simple computer literacy .(Goertler,2009). It

is a popular website having over 845 million users Aydin(2013)

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quotes, Protalinski as saying. Primarily the purpose of the

launch of such a program was to create communication between the

students of the Harvard in year 2006 . The working mechanism is

not very different from other social Networking Sites(SNS) .

Users make their public profiles, add their school and

professional information , set the privacy and security settings

as they desire and add friends of their interest, they share

graphics, exchange comments and keep their friend circle updated

with what they are up to. Out of each twelfth person, one will

necessarily have a Facebook account Andersons et. al.,(2013)

refer to Sieleg 2011. Pempek et. al., cited by Andersson et.al.,

(2013)found that college students use Facebook approximately 30

min throughout the day. Finally, social networking includes

communication between administrators, parents, and other

community members Butler referred by Andersson et.al., (2013).

However, English being the global language is the internet

language too, so it is the language of Facebook simultaneously.

People use the internet English but there is a growing concern

about the changes being introduced in it . Hence, there is a

section of people who think it’s a danger for the language’s

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survival , for it is moving away from its traditional shape, “The

purists argue that the prioritization of speed , and word economy

inspired by quick and compact communication methods are

corrupting English speaker’s command on their own language”

(Newman, 2013), while there are people who think it to be

innovative. A language has to change , in order to survive.

A conversation between two friends has been observed on the

instant messenger, the same scenario can be perfectly replicated

with the face book messenger. A friend asks another: The comments

of best friends included the following: "Why are you typing

grammatically correct?" "Why are you writing in caps ... first

letter?" "Why are you writing all proper?" "Why are you using

CAPS?" (Jacobson) . A single example of a changing approach

towards language, which one may reasonably call as internet

discourse.

When one thinks of taking such a SNS for formal education,

underlying the use of the SNS , there is already a constant

enrichment of the language learning , because it is more of

self-directed and creative , than the traditional language

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teaching. Drotner 2008 is quoted by Anderssons et.al.2013. One

gets a chance to coin and use the semantics with an open ended

limit. So, it is desired to change the orthodox opinion about

language, which carried only a single feature, of being a formal

tool for communication. But there are various other

characteristics of a language. “Language learners today should,

thus, be prepared to develop an awareness of other approaches to

learning, which are based on viewing language as hybrid, as

context trans forming, as representational” Anderssons et.al.,

2013 p.296 quote Canagarajah.

Moreover Facebook has a dynamic role to play for interaction ,

communication and learning. Students create groups, where

fellows of the same course, without giving access to personal

profiles can still exchange ideas , create questions, share class

lectures, teachers remain aware of the progress of the class and

the process of learning goes on successfully. However, If it is

used as a SNS application , it can play with the language

structures. One must understand the approach towards language,

the internet is not as harmful as apprehended , it’s the users

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activity’s demand to remain academic and pure or to play with it,

create it or distort it .“We argue that instead of comparing the

interaction in these boundary activities with the interaction in

students’ everyday use in SNSs, the interaction here needs to be

regarded as communication and language learning activities with

values of their own”(Aydin, 2013)

When one thinks of Facebook; Apple, Blackberry, and Tablet,

instantly click one’s mind, these are not only the name of fruits

or a medical term alone , but the devices of the SNS with

facebook application installed by default, and addition of the

words in the dictionary at the same time. (Akunna, 2012)

4.2 Twitter:

Twitter has over 200 million (Dun, 2011). It was launched in

2006, and a very popular micro blogging. It has the limitation

of words to 140 characters. Twitter is likely to be most

important factor to bring about the neologism of the internet.

And systematically there is expansion of the vocabulary; the aim

is to convey the message in possible minimum characters or

words. “For example: 2 b r nt 2 b, (to be or not to be) R u ok?

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(Are you okay?) , LOL (Laughing out loud), OMG (oh my God), IMHO

(In my humble opinion), e.t.c . Coinage of new words lie

“selfie” , “blog”, “googling ” , “like”, “tweeting”, e.t.c the

most contribution lies on the shoulder of the twitter .It is

surveyed that “A total of 0.56 per cent of words posted on the

micro-blogging site are either misspelled or unofficial, although

it has been suggested that this might be down to its strict 140-

character limit. Taking up second place is Google+ with 0.42 per

cent of misspelled words, followed by Facebook with 0.31 per

cent” (Furze 2013) . The point arises is this, that it is not the

misspelling, this approach towards language has to be changed.

But the linguists , who do not fear the experimenting with

English, they have another approach, Crystal (2005) is very

optimistic, he believes that Internet will bring greatest trends

in the language.( Anderssonet.al., 2009)

Many linguists are trying to clarify this as a process of

evolution of the language. It is a well known fact that

immigration, colonalisation, economics, culture and there are

various factors involved in language evolution ,and its pretty

useless to specify the Social Media to be an enemy of the English

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language (Newman 2013). To the faction who showed the concern

about contracting the words, David Crystal as quoted by Mcnabb

(2014), defended the use of the acronyms suggesting that the

acronyms date back to the ancient times that was not a new

phenomenon. “All the popular beliefs about texting are wrong and

that texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its

long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.” ( Mcnabb,

2014) . Giving the example of ‘haha’, he believes that it dates

back to Alferic’s Grammar some 1000 A.D. Some contractions, short

forms and acronyms are dated back the Latin and Medieval English

too. “Abbreviations and fragments are a language's normal

response to stress. Medieval language is dense with

abbreviations, because writing material was expensive and books

could be published only by copying. Today the stresses are

different but the response is familiar.” (Gelenter,2009) “When

you are forced to compress your message into fewer words, each

word works harder, carries more meaning on its shoulders and,

accordingly, becomes more important and interesting. Digital

English is no good for poetry or novels, but on balance it's

refreshing”.

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Discussion:

The new generation since the 90’s is heavily influenced by the

internet. It has transformed the living styles and the process of

the technological advancement continues. Various technologies

and applications are introduced for both the digital natives as

well as the digital immigrants to enhance learning . However, it

is an individual’s attitude towards technology either to learn

and accept it or to remain a traditionalist and be a

nonconformist. Linguistic variations are inevitable, digital

English is also hard to be refuted , one must understand that

contractions and squeezing of words into characters still carry

a message , which makes a language interesting to understand. It

is also noteworthy that it is a temporary charm of language for

the purpose of text-based communication merely to fulfill the

requirement of the spoken language . Once an individual is

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offline , the language gets back to its real shape. Things will

keep on changing, the academic and formal writing will remain

unaffected, but it can imbibe the slangs in itself, only after

those are approved of as the officially recognized vocabulary in

English . It is noteworthy to mention , that the collaboration

and interaction is not the target, but beneath it is to discover

the gaps and the niche in the pedagogical studies that are yet to

be researched. The CMC , CALL and SNS are showing a path in the

field of pedagogy to investigate and research , much can be

contributed because the process of transferring of knowledge

goes along

Conclusion:

The topic revolves around the effectiveness of the CMC and Social

media in language learning. Social media for learning purpose is

itself a direction for research and explore further avenues . The

applications have two ways of playing with the languages if the

students remain restricted to academic use of the technology,

there is no harm to language . The concept of the damage to the

language is vague and short termed, likewise when the social

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media applications are taken for interaction outside studies ,

the users feel free to play and experiment with the language,

even then they are moving to the innovations in the language. One

must not forget nature of the language itself, which is fluid

and is ready to accept new terms and words and its unnatural to

resist any changes.

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